


March Madness

by vicki



Category: Eureka
Genre: Community: femme_fic, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-05-13
Updated: 2009-05-13
Packaged: 2017-10-15 06:27:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/157964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vicki/pseuds/vicki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>"Allison had been away from Eureka for a whole three days, and the whole place had seemingly gone to hell in a hand-basket during that time."</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	March Madness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sheepfairy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sheepfairy/gifts).



Three days. Allison had been away from Eureka for a whole three days, and the whole place had seemingly gone to hell in a hand-basket during that time.

Once upon a time, when she had been young and naïve, she had thought that being in charge of a place like this would be fun and exciting. Of course, she had been seven years old at the time, and the highly intelligent denizens of her magical kingdom would all be well-behaved, not to mention would never resort to brawling in the streets.

Which was exactly what had been going on when she arrived back in Eureka today.  


Two of Global Dynamic's most well-respected researchers had been wrestling on the ground in front of Vincent's, with a large crowd of onlookers surrounding them who, from what Allison had been able to tell, had been cheering them on. Allison had called Carter, who in turn had called Jo, pointing out that it was his day off and there was college basketball to be watched. Jo turned up minutes later, looking slightly disheveled, and tossed the two idiot geniuses into the cells at the sheriff's office, locked the door and left them there to cool down overnight.

At nine am sharp the next morning, Doctor Sergei Denisov and Doctor Colin Sullivan presented themselves to Allison in her office, looking anything but contrite about the chaos that they had caused. Instead, they were glaring at each other with pure, undisguised loathing. Considering the pair vied for the top spot on the list of 'who is secretly fucking each other in unused storage closets,' Allison sincerely hoped that she hadn't inadvertently found herself in the middle of some lover's tiff, but a public brawl wasn't something that she could let slide.

"Now, gentlemen," she began, indicating that they should take seats. "Would you be so kind to explain the atrocious scene I returned to yesterday?"

The two doctors glared at each other, and then faced Allison and began to shout explanations. Simultaneously. Allison pinched the bridge of her nose, and held up a hand, silencing them.  


"One at a time, please," she sighed. "Doctor Denisov?"

Sergei shot a victorious look at the other man before turning to Allison. "Colin was being an idiot, and he placed Stanford as his top choice, whereas anyone with half a brain would surely have chosen UConn. He punched me when I tried to point out how dumb he was being."  


"He punched me first!" exclaimed Colin, his face turning red. "I was trying to rationally explain my selection, but Sergei would not listen!"

"Gentlemen!" exclaimed Allison, hoping to forestall another scuffle, this time breaking out in her office. She'd never hear the end of it from Carter. "Are you telling me that you got into a physical altercation over _college rankings_?"

Both men were now staring at her like _she_ was the crazy one. "We were filling in our tournament brackets," said Sergei.

"Tournament brackets? What tournament brackets? Are you talking about sport? You don't even _like_ sports," exclaimed Allison. "Carter tried to recruit you for his baseball league and you laughed in his face, declaring that organized sport was for a bunch of Neanderthals who tried to make up for their cranial deficiencies by participating in archaic rituals that had no reason or purpose."

"Ah, but these young ladies are college athletes so they're the best of both worlds," explained Sergei. "It's like... it's like relativity in motion." Colin was no longer glaring at Sergei, instead nodding enthusiastically in agreement. Both men sighed in tandem.

Allison just stared at them. "One, that metaphor doesn't even make sense. Two, you're... you don't even like girls!" she tried to point out to them.

Sergei and Colin just looked insulted. "That," sniffed Sergei, "Has nothing to do with it."

Allison waved her hand at them. "Just go," she said. "You're both suspended for two days without pay, and if I hear one word of you fighting again, then I'm going to bring you up in front of a review board."

The two doctors scurried out of her office, already sniping at each other and Allison groaned, resisting the urge to bang her head against her desk. Instead, she reached for her phone and dialed a far too familiar number. Hopefully, Carter would be able to provide some insight into just what was going on.

* * *

"He really put down Stanford to win it all? Really?" asked Carter. The fact that he was taking the bet more seriously than the fighting was making this whole situation even more infuriating.

Allison growled. "That is not relevant," she snapped, before taking a very welcome mouthful of coffee. "The whole town has gone crazy over women's college basketball, of all things. Could it have been any more random or any more precise?"

Carter just shrugged. "Well, the season's over in a couple of weeks, so maybe it'll all be back to normal then," he suggested.

"Or maybe it won't be. There's clearly some external force at work here. Have you taken a look around recently?" she asked, waving her hand to illustrate, and nearly smacking Zoe as she placed a fresh cup of coffee down in front of Allison.

"You look like you could do with it," the teenager explained.

Allison managed a tight smile of thanks before returning her attention back to Carter.

"I'll admit, Vincent's new style of decorating is a little... unorthodox," he admitted.

Unorthodox was certainly one word for it. 'Batshit crazy' was how Allison would describe it. The whole of Vincent's cafe was now blue and white, and covered in Connecticut Huskies memorabilia. Various pieces of basketball detritus were scattered around the place, and a large whiteboard stood in front of the back wall, with the bracket neatly drawn on it. The television above it was showing ESPN; Allison hadn't even realized Eureka got that channel, much less that any of the inhabitants - other than Carter - knew such a channel even existed.

"Something is seriously wrong here, and you are going to help me fix it," she said firmly, drawing Carter's attention away from the television and back to her. "We need to find who did this."

"I have an idea," said Carter, grinning. "Hey, Vincent!"

"Sheriff, I know Tennessee going out in the first round was a shock, but I can't let anyone change their brackets because of it. If Doctor Blake wants to enter late though, I suppose I could make an exception for her, but only because she wasn't here at the start. But you can't tell anyone that I allowed it."

"Nah, it's okay. Listen, we just wanted to know who gave you the idea of doing this in the first place," said Carter.

"The bracket? Oh, it was James Bishop," said Vincent. "He asks me to do it every year, but this is the only time I've really had anyone interested in it."

Carter glanced back at Allison. "There's your guy."

Allison was nodding. "Doctor Bishop is involved in neurological research. It makes sense. Come with me and we'll have a chat with him."

* * *

There was a basketball hoop outside James Bishop's house and he was shooting hoops with a little girl when Carter pulled up outside. He spoke briefly to her, and she nodded and disappeared inside while he tossed the ball casually through the basket one last time.

"Doctor Bishop, if we could have a few words with you," called Allison.

"If I'm under arrest, I'll need to find a babysitter," he said, strolling towards them.

"I'm not arresting anyone just yet," said Carter. "Right now, we're just here to talk."

"Why'd you do it, James?" asked Allison quietly. "Is women's college basketball really that important to you?"

"It was to Caroline, my wife," said James, his voice cracking. "Her basketball scholarship was the only way she could afford to go to school. We were high school sweethearts and even though we went to different schools, I never missed a game. After we graduated and got married, we'd follow the women's tournament each year. We'd each fill out our brackets and wager our yearly vacation choice on the result. Carrie died last September and I couldn't bear the idea of watching it alone. My kids are too young to really understand what's going on, and I thought that if I had other people talking about it, then maybe I wouldn't miss her so much." He paused and ducked his head as he quickly wiped his hand across his eyes. "God, I miss her so much still. I'd like to think that she's getting a kick out of this though."

"James, I'm not going to have you arrested for this, but we need to know how to stop what's going on in town," said Allison. "You heard about the fight yesterday, right? People are taking it all too seriously and I know you don't want anyone to get hurt."

James nodded. "I know, and I've already stopped it," he said. "It'll just take a while for everyone to return to normal – tomorrow morning at the latest. I'm sorry about the fight, I really wasn't expecting anything like that to happen as everyone was supposed to be supporting UConn, but I think Doctor Collins is a Stanford graduate."

Allison laughed for the first time since returning to Eureka the previous day. "Thank you," she said.

"Hey, if you want someone to watch the games with, then I'd be happy to oblige," said Carter. "It's nice to finally meet someone who appreciates some sports, at least!"

"Really?" asked James, starting to smile.

"Yeah, I'll bring the beer."

"Make that two someones," said Allison. Both the men looked at her in surprise, and she shrugged. "Why not? It never hurts to try something new, and now I have to see whether it's going to be Stanford or UConn."

  
* * *


End file.
